How To Find Out What Breed Your Puppy Is

What breed is my domestic dog? (4 ways to observe out)

Wisdom Panel™ Team
Casey Knox, DVM

Have you ever wondered, "What brood is my dog?"

From satisfying your curiosity to better understanding your pet so you tin provide tailored care, there are several benefits to figuring out which breeds make up your mystery mix.

Your veterinary (or the shelter staff, if you lot adopted) may offering ideas about your pup's ancestry. But when judging past visual cues alone, even experts misidentify a dog'southward breed well-nigh 75% of the fourth dimension.

And then, in this post, you'll learn 4 methods for discerning your doggo's breed.

1. Compare your pup's concrete traits to other breeds.

When trying to effigy out a dog'south breed, most people beginning by looking. Such an approach is rather straightforward and only requires a fleck of fourth dimension and research. Only it's certainly not the most accurate way to identify your pup's breed.

Later all, physical appearance can be misleading due to how dogs inherit traits. And that ways even experts may judge wrong—as Dr. Angela Hughes did when predicting Toby's breed mix in the video below.

If yous'd like to try your hand at visual identification, make a list of your dog's notable physical characteristics—also called "phenotype"—such every bit:

Head and cage shape and length (due east.grand., curt and flat, narrow and pointed)
Ear shape and railroad vehicle (e.grand., pointed and erect, folded or droopy)
Tail type (due east.g., naturally bobbed, long and curled)
Body build and size (east.g., muscular and mighty, tall and slender)
Glaze texture, color, length, and blueprint (e.one thousand., wiry, curt, solid, spotted)

In general, y'all should prioritize clues in your canis familiaris's shape (AKA, morphology) over their color or coat type because the former are a amend reflection of your domestic dog's full ancestry. Colors and glaze types, on the other hand, are the result of unmarried genes. And when hundreds of breeds share the same coat colour genes, guessing breeds gets a lot harder!

Then, look at your dog's head shape, tail carriage, and ear shape and size beginning. For example, does your pup take a:

Heavily boned and blocky head? That'southward common for guard dog breeds.
Long and narrow nose? Collie, German Shepherd Dog, Dachshund, or Doberman might be probable.
Curly tail? That may mean an ancient brood, though there are exceptions (due east.g., Pomeranian).
High-set ears? That likely rules out a sporting breed like a Labrador Retriever.
Enlarged ears? Think hounds or sporting breeds (e.thousand., spaniels, retrievers, pointers, setters).

Ane morphology "gotcha" to keep in heed:

A single gene causes short legs, and 40+ breeds (not simply Dachshund, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, and Basset hound) acquit it. For example, the Shih Tzu, Chihuahua, and Yorkshire Terrier often carry the trait. But most people don't consider such breeds when they recall "short legs."

Besides the to a higher place, be sure to write down whatsoever unique features, likewise as distinct personality traits and behaviors. Does your domestic dog love water? Do they attempt to "herd" people and other animals? These are great clues!

Once you take your list, it's time for some investigative work. Start searching online for dogs that match your pup. Once you've identified a few potential candidates, scan our breed library for dog facts and photos to learn more near them.

Guessing by looks alone can be fun, but it's non foolproof. Afterward all, some genetic traits are recessive, and so your pup may non show visible signs of every antecedent.

Dog wearing glasses and a sweater at a computer

2. Have a canis familiaris brood identification quiz.

Don't have time for all the enquiry required past the first approach? Online canis familiaris breed quizzes accept almost of the legwork out of visual identification. After answering a few simple questions nigh your dog's advent and traits, you lot'll get a list of possible matches.

Similar the option above, quizzes rely on visual cues. And so, they probably won't get the beginnings 100% correct—peculiarly if several breeds make upwardly your mix. However, they're pretty fun to take.

Many quizzes similar this exist. But as the earth's leading dog Deoxyribonucleic acid service, we decided to brand our ain! Information technology's brusque—you just have to answer three questions near your domestic dog'south ears, tail, and head shape.

Accept the dog breed quiz →

Taking a picture of a dog for a breed identifier app

iii. Download a dog brood identifier app.

There are a few gratis apps that utilise machine learning algorithms to predict a domestic dog's breed mix based on a photo. Equally a result, this option isn't much more accurate than the previous two since figuring out breed based on looks solitary can be tricky.

To give you an thought of how tricky, here's a quick test:Which of the following dogs practise y'all call back has Border Collie in its contempo beginnings?

The correct answer is #two. Did you judge right?

Permit'southward try again:Which of the following dogs have a Labrador Retriever every bit a close relative?

Believe it or non, the correct answer is #3. Not certain about you, merely that would've been our concluding guess! And it probable would have stumped an algorithm, too.

Though far from perfect, breed identifier apps—like the quizzes—tin yield amusing results. If you desire to give this approach a shot, here's an app we tried.

iv. Apply a dog DNA test.

The methods in a higher place may exist entertaining. But if you truly want to be confident about your pup'southward breed make-upward, there's really only one choice: a dog DNA test. This choice looks by your pup'southward outward advent and uses genetic clues to determine their ancestry.

For the highest accurateness, you'll want a test with a sizable reference sample database. Why? Because Deoxyribonucleic acid examination algorithms compare submitted genetic samples against other samples in a database to determine the all-time match. So, a bigger puddle of samples makes a test "smarter." And that means more reliable results.

Using the largest canis familiaris breed database in the world, Wisdom Panel™ tests screen for 350+ breeds, types, and varieties. As a result, we tin can place breeds that other services don't even test for.

We also report breed mix down to 1%, trace ancestry back three generations, test for health atmospheric condition and traits, and more!

Learn more about dog DNA testing →

The best way to figure out your dog'due south breed?

To demonstrate the differences between these iv approaches, let's use Koda, the pup pictured above, as an example.

Like most canis familiaris owners, Koda'due south parents kickoff used visual and behavioral cues to judge his breed background. They predicted he was a mix of:

Siberian Husky (considering of his coat color and markings)
Labrador Retriever (considering he loves h2o and playing fetch)
German language Shepherd (because of his build)

Next Koda's parents took the "What's my dog?" quiz, which returned the following breed results:

Miniature Schnauzer
Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Labrador Retriever

As you lot can see, things are already getting a chip inconsistent! But wait—it gets amend. The "Dog Scanner" app predicted Koda was a mix of:

Perro de Presa Mallorquin
Siberian Croaking
High german Shepherd
Carolina Dog

Eager for a more than definitive answer, Koda'southward parents finally used a Wisdom Panel™ Premium domestic dog DNA exam. And subsequently evaluating his genetic profile, the test revealed Koda was part:

Siberian Croaking (26%)
American Staffordshire Terrier (fourteen%)
Akita (13%)
Labrador Retriever (13%)
Golden Retriever (13%)
Kishu Ken (6%)
Mudi (half-dozen%)
Chow Grub (4%)
White Swiss Shepherd (2%)
Finnish Lapphund (1%)
Drever (1%)
Norwegian Buhund (1%)

Equally yous can see, each of the visual identification methods guessedsome breeds correctly. But they several missed others or even wrongly predicted a few.

All the same, the dog Deoxyribonucleic acid test provided the virtually complete, about accurate movie of Koda's brood background—assuasive his parents to understand him better. All of a sudden, information technology was clear where Koda'due south protective tendencies came from (Akita, AmStaff). And his dense coat was no longer a mystery (Grub Grub, Akita, Husky).

As added benefits, Koda'south Deoxyribonucleic acid test ruled out life-threatening genetic health atmospheric condition (whew!) and gave his parents ideas for activities and grooming techniques he'd enjoy.